Note If you're planning to build an app for Windows 8.1 devices, Windows Store app development in Visual Studio is supported only on Windows 8.1 and Windows 8. Windows 7 is not supported. In addition, developer licenses aren't available for Windows Server 2012, so you can't develop Windows Store apps on that operating system.

Choose what type of app you want to build

If you're targeting Windows 8.1 devices, decide what programming language you want to use to build your app (JavaScript, Visual C#, or Visual C++). Then, choose the template that fits your needs. You'll find the currently available templates for your language choice in the Universal Apps group of project templates.

Add items to your project by using item templates

After you create your project, you can add item templates to it. You add these by clicking Project > Add New Item or by right-clicking the project in Solution Explorer and then clicking Add > New Item.

In Visual Studio, you should see something like this:

For a basic app page with a title and recommended margins and styles, you start with a Blank App project template and add a Basic Page item template. That Basic Page template could be the starting page for your app, and you could add more item templates to create other pages in your app.

To learn more about item templates, see either of the following topics:

We recommend that you spend a few minutes exploring the item templates in the Add New Item dialog box. Aside from app pages like Basic Page and file types like XML File, there are several contracts available to get you started with extending the capabilities of your app, including sharing data and search results, and opening files.

What's next?

If you've picked your programming language and know what kind of app you want to create, your next step is to start creating your first app. Here's more info about what to do next: